University College London

Effects of ‘no safe level’ and ‘cutting down’ alcohol messages on problem recognition, defensive processing, and self-efficacy in heavy drinkers: a randomized experimental study

This study tested a no safe level of alcohol consumption message on psychological outcomes relevant to drinking behaviour, compared with a gain-framed benefits of cutting down message. Adults drinking at risky or harmful levels (AUDIT-C ≥ 5; N = 485) were randomised to one of thr...

The effect of number of children on loneliness: a nationally-representative instrumental-variable study in India

Abstract Background This study aimed to investigate the causal effect of the number of children on loneliness among older parents in India. Methods We used nationally representative data from Wave 1 of the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI). Our analytical sample comprised...

Body composition, geography and ethnicity: understanding the associations with health

Abstract Human body composition varies substantially across populations, for a range of different reasons that remain poorly understood. Similar to body size and limb proportions, both fat-free and fat mass are geographically patterned, which may relate both to ancestry but also...

Congenital aphantasia: what we (think we) know, what we thought we knew but were mistaken about, and what we don't know

Congenital Aphantasia initially described a lifelong inability to visualise. But it is now understood to manifest as imaginative inabilities that can encompass multiple sensory modalities (e.g. vision, audio, movement, taste, touch, smell). Congenital Aphantasia has become a focu...

CART-Cell Therapy in Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia: A Review for General Pediatricians

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy has transformed outcomes for children and young adults with relapsed/refractory CD19+ B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL), enabling deep remissions even in patients who are refractory to chemotherapy or have relapsed after he...

RSEs as trainers – the who, why and how of providing digital research skills training

RSEs often provide training for researchers and dRTPs at their local institution in the digital research skills used in their own work. These courses cover a diverse range of topics, from beginners' language courses, to software architecture and efficiency, to specialised tools a...

Speed vs Structure: Building Reproducible AI Workflows with the UCL Unified AI Research Platform

Event Type Walkthrough Abstract In this 30-minute walk-through, we demonstrate how AI model development can be effectively balanced between rapid experimentation and robust, reproducible software engineering practices using Unified AI, UCL’s in-house Kubernetes-based research pla...

Combining Implementation and Data Sciences to Accelerate Evidence Integration into Healthcare – ImpleMATE

Background The translation of research evidence into routine healthcare practice is often slow and inconsistent, even timely implementation can significantly improve patient outcomes. While implementation science offers strategies to close this gap, current approaches are frequen...

Hydroclimatic-driven pulse enrichment amplifies riverine microplastic export in developing countries

Rivers are key conduits in the global microplastic cycle, but how much they export to ` ocean and what controls this export remain unresolved. Here, we present a global daily dataset of riverine microplastic concentrations and exports and find that rivers delivered far more micro...

Cloud-Native SIG Workshop: Deploying a Web Application with Kubernetes

The academic world is asking for more web-based software to make research more accessible to both researchers and the public. There are many challenges with writing, maintaining and deploying web services, so how, as an RSE can we make this journey easier. Cloud-Native technology...

Accuracy of Virtual Surgical Planning in Le Fort III Distraction Osteogenesis: A 3-Dimensional Evaluation of Planned and Achieved Outcomes

BACKGROUND: Syndromic hypoplasia of the midface can be addressed by Le Fort III osteotomy. Three-dimensional planning tools and cutting guides have the potential to facilitate the design of Le Fort III osteotomy and distraction vectors, anticipate potential challenges, and mitiga...

Speed vs Structure: Building Reproducible AI Workflows with the UCL Unified AI Research Platform

Event Type Walkthrough Abstract In this 30-minute walk-through, we demonstrate how AI model development can be effectively balanced between rapid experimentation and robust, reproducible software engineering practices using Unified AI, UCL’s in-house Kubernetes-based research pla...

What patients do when they feel dizzy: behavioural signatures reveal diagnostic clues in common vestibular disorders

Abstract Background Diagnosis of vestibular disorders relies heavily on clinical history, yet how patients adapt their behaviour in response to dizziness remains relatively unexplored. We investigated whether adopted avoidance behaviours and coping strategies provide additional d...

Analysing geographical locality in research on gender and students’ socio-emotional relationships with school mathematics: a scoping review

Abstract This paper extends research on intersectionality in mathematics education by exploring how gender is related to, and complicated by, geographical locality. From a systematically identified body of 152 articles on gender and students’ socio-emotional relationships with ma...

Reproducibility without compromise: Guix and ravanan

We have a reproducibility crisis. Workflows that work on one machine at one time do not work elsewhere or later. Package managers like conda make it easy to install packages on different machines, but cannot help with reproducibility. Docker/Singularity images capture the softwar...

Cloud Cybersecurity for Research Engineers

The availability of large datasets and breakthroughs in machine learning have had a profound impact on how modern science is conducted. Once the preserve of computer science, large-scale compute has become a universal requirement across research fields from astrophysics to zoolog...

Microglial GRB2 is essential for brain ventriculogenesis and CSF homeostasis

Microglia play essential yet poorly understood roles in brain development, including axon guidance, regulation of neurogenesis, and pruning of neuronal projections. Congenital hydrocephalus (CH), characterized by enlarged cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)-filled ventricles, is a leading...

Mental health link workers in neighbourhood care: a theoretical application of the creative health communication framework

Purpose This article explores the conceptual application of the Creative Health Communication Framework (CHCF) to mental health and wellbeing support within integrated neighbourhood models of care. It proposes the introduction of specialist Mental Health and/or Creative Health Li...

Extensive and differential platinum chemotherapy mutagenesis in livers of children

Childhood cancer survivors often experience late adverse effects that may be linked to chemotherapy mutagenesis. We studied chemotherapy mutagenesis in normal pediatric tissues using duplex sequencing (NanoSeq) to enable the detection of mutations from single DNA molecules. We fo...

Digital harms and the English reception baseline assessment

This article critically examines the UK Government's imposition of the digital reception baseline assessment (RBA) that extends, amplifies and accelerates the existing English early years neoliberal accountability architecture. Drawing on a 2-year empirical study (2024–2025) acro...